U.S. Pat. No. 3,394,705 issued to Abramson teaches a catheter for fine spray irrigation of antiseptics and antibiotics in the region of the urethra immediately adjacent to the bladder. The catheter comprises a small diameter tube for passing entirely through the urethra, an inflatable bag for seating within the bladder, and an antiseptic fluid chamber with small apertures encircling the tube for fine spray irrigation. The small apertures are uniformly spaced in a spiral so that irrigation and drainage through them will be uniform.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,345 issued to Louw teaches a catheter of flexible construction for treating the human uterus. The catheter possesses sufficient stiffness to permit introduction into the body by itself without the need for a rigid stiffening device. The catheter is combined with a means for flushing or introducing medication through radial spray holes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,247 issued to Inoue et al. teaches a catheter or fiberscope apparatus for inspection of intracavitary areas like the heart. The catheter comprises a flexible tube divided into four passageways with a balloon mounted on its end. The flexible tube is constructed with two fluid passageways, an illumination light transmission line, and an image transmission line. The use of a physiological saline spray dispensed from one fluid passageway outside of the balloon for the purpose of flushing the area to be inspected to remove obstructing materials from the field through which light rays pass and to prevent direct contact between the balloon and the area to be inspected is taught.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,375 issued to Martinez teaches a catheter or endotracheal tube combined with a means for administering medication. The catheter comprises a channel formed by a flexible elastic wall attached to an inner wall of the catheter with a flared portion at the distal end. When medication is introduced into the channel, pressure due to ventilating air compresses the channel, forcing the medication to the flared portion where it is atomized.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,868 issued to Borchard teaches an apparatus for administering a controlled dose of a liquid medication to each nostril of the nose. The apparatus comprises a syringe completely encased in a tube, a piston connected to the plunger end of the syringe, and an atomizer head fitted over the needle end of the syringe. When the plunger is depressed, the liquid in the syringe is atomized and administered to the nostrils.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,806 issued to Palmer et al. teaches a ventilating/aspirating apparatus for introducing medication into the lungs of a patient without the need for disconnecting breathing apparatus or interrupting the ventilation or aspiration cycle. A metered predetermined dosage of medication is introduced as an atomized spray into the respirating system of the patient during artificial ventilation, aspiration, and when neither ventilation nor aspiration is occurring. The atomized medication is dispensed from a pressurized container with a manually activated normally closed valve during the respiration cycle or between the respiration and aspiration cycles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,423 issued to Matson et al. teaches a method of and apparatus for delivering a dose of an aerosol drug to the lungs of a large animal. An endotracheal-like nasal tube is inserted through the nostril of the large animal and an aerosol drug dose is discharged into the lumen of the nasal tube. The inwardly flowing air carries the atomized drug dose with it for delivery to the lungs of the large animal.
There still remains a need for an intracavitary therapeutic or diagnostic agent atomizer capable of rapidly depositing, in higher concentration than devices known in the art, precious or radioactive therapeutic or diagnostic agents with a relatively small drug volume no or minimal excess. Moreover, there remains a need for an intracavitary drug atomizer that contains the used therapeutic or diagnostic products.